Fear to Tread
by January in June
Summary: Be careful what you wish for. Sequel to "Concubines and Space Cocaine"
1. Fools Rush In

"Oi, oi, up she rises," Katlin sang hoarsely, gripping at the grass on the edge of the path. "Oi, oi, UP," with a grunt, Katlin hefted herself onto the last switchback. The bullet wound in her side gave a stab of pain and the world spun around her, so she paused on all fours for a moment, fighting rising hysteria. A gust of wind whipped the torn white wedding dress around her limbs, with a sound like snapping sails. She adjusted her grip on the hair of the head she carried. "Have to get you back to the Enterprise," she told the unresponsive head, with a giggle.

"And no biting," she reminded him, in a whisper. Katlin stood, knees shaking from the exertion. She took a step up the gravel path. "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" she whispered to herself.

The wind was blessedly warm after the icy caves below. It tangled in her hair and seemed to push her up the path. She stumbled, keeping her eyes on the road before her. The wound in her side opened, and a blossom of blood bloomed at her waist, like a flower in her waistband. Gut-shot. Need help and… soon.

A muffled scream let her know she had arrived at the plateau. Katlin looked up from the path into the horrified faces of the away team. With a wide grin, she raised the head.

"I've got the Data," she said, collapsing to her knees in a fit of sobbing laughter. White-hot pain shot up her side, and she dropped Data's head and let it roll away from her. She wrapped her arms around her middle to try and stop the pain, still laughing. Warm dampness spread over her arms. "I've been shot," she announced, with satisfaction. Faces were blurry above her; she knew she only had a few more seconds of consciousness.

"Riker shot me," she chuckled, and lapsed into the dark.


	2. Falling Angel

…three days earlier:

"Don't look now, but Riker-like flirting detected." Molly giggled.

Involuntarily, Katlin glanced over. Riker-like flirting, indeed. He was letting the new scientist, Dr. Thesius, 'guide' his hands over the deep ice borer. She struggled to keep her eyes from rolling and adjusted her fur hood so she wouldn't have to see. "Flavor of the month," she grunted, and hefted her weight behind her own ice collection unit.

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"Why should it?" With a grunt, Katlin engaged the drive core. She watched in satisfaction as the collection unit extracted a flawless ice crystal and stored it in a single cryo case. She removed the case and dropped it in her saddlebag before moving on to the next extraction site.

"Everyone knows you're not over him."

"That's 'cause I was never under him."

Molly gave a bark of genuine laughter.

"Besides," Katlin continued, collecting the next crystal. "I'm dating Lieutenant Emory."

"He's cute," Molly agreed, "But Katlin – " Molly paused. "Do you hear that?"

Katlin quieted warily. There was a slight shimmer in the air, a sound like a beleaguered kazoo.

Katlin shielded her eyes with one hand, scanning the extraction site. It all looked calm – a stretch of grassy, icy tundra. The one danger was the sharp crevasse, a single wound across the landscape. It was the combination of sharp ice crevasse and its sub-zero temperatures that made these ice crystals so valuable to the beautiful Dr. Thesius.

Katlin frowned. No one else at the extraction site seemed bothered, but the kazoo-like sound persisted. If anything, it was growing louder. She turned her gaze upward.

There. A meteor? It was burning a bright orange, though, the wrong color for this particular atmosphere. At it was coming in hot.

Too hot? Katlin scrabbled at her side for a pair of binoculars. She flipped on the digital enhancement and trained her sight on the meteor.

It wasn't a meteor. It was galaxy class Starship.

"Commander Riker!" Katlin yelped. Without dropping the Starship from her sights, she pointed. "Ship!" The campsite was suddenly silent. Katlin adjusted the focus until she could read the call sign "NCC 1734-R!"

The relief was palatable, but temporary.

"Heading?" Riker barked from a distance.

"14 point naught 4 se-…" Katlin gulped as she read the last digit. "Seven." It was heading right for them.

"Riker to Enterprise! Fourteen to beam up, immediately!"

Lieutent O'Brien's voice cackled over the comlink. "Higher ground! The crevasse is interfering!"

Katlin dropped her binoculars and ran with the rest of the away team, slipping in the slightly icy grass. Molly tripped and fell infront of her, and Katlin reached down and dragged her to her feet. The kazoo-sound had transformed into a roar.

They almost didn't make it. The impact threw Katlin from her feet – it felt like gravity had momentarily reversed. The next sensation was the wall of snow – exploded ice – that hit her like a wave. She tumbled, unable to stop her rolling momentum, panicked and gasping for air.

It ended in a jolt, and Katlin realized she was still alive. Without a pained grunt, she began to dig herself out and up. She popped from the snow, gasping, in enough time to see the rest of the away team, in various stages of distress, emerge. "Molly?"

"Here." Molly wiped at her bloody mouth and stuggled to sit up.

Katlin drew a calming breath. "Pierce to Enterprise." She fought her way out of the last of the shredded ice. "Life signs?"

"Fourteen on the plateau." This time it was Data's calm voice that came over the comlink. "Two in the crevasse."

…two? TWO? On a galaxy class starship… Oh god.

Katlin stood and tried to run on the sandy ice shards, and slipped to all fours. She dog-walked her way towards the crash site, nearly tumbling over the edge of the crevasse. It was deep – impossibly deep – and the smoldering wreckage of a starship lay at the bottom. Two life signs.

"Pierce! We're beaming up!" Riker had hefted the sobbing Dr. Theseus into his arms.

"Two life signs!" Katlin protested.

"We'll beam down a rescue team!"

Katlin nodded with relief. Members of the away team began dissolving into transporter beams, and Katlin pushed herself back high enough, until she felt the familiar tug of the Enterprise. She shivered once in the snow, and then the transporter beam swirled around her, and she was gone.


	3. Pierce to Riker

It took Riker ten minutes to disengage the sobbing doctor from around his neck. He left her in the sick bay, with a repeated promise to visit as soon as he was free. The door to sick bay closed behind him, but he could still feel the doctor's arms around his neck. He coughed, straightened the neck of his uniform, and made his way towards the conference room.

He half expected to see Katlin waiting for him outside sickbay. It would be just her style to be waiting with a smirk and new, vital information. Or for her to be waiting in the conference room, invited to be on the panel discussing these events. Somehow, she would be in the thick of things. Like him. Like always.

But Katlin wasn't there when he turned the corner. Riker paused outside the conference room. "Computer," he said quietly, resisting the urge to glance behind him, "Location of Lieutenant Pierce."

"Privacy restrictions prevent –"

"First officer's override, Riker, William T."

"Lieutenant Pierce is currently in Cabin 4378."

Her quarters. Riker nodded his relief – or was it disappointment? Then he squared his shoulders and entered the conference room.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Cabin 4378, Katlin was idly thumbing through the latest issue of Starfleet TODAY on her PADD. She flicked through the pageviews without reading. She half expected to hear her badge chime, and the familiar bark of "Riker to Pierce" that always meant the next adventure was about to begin.

But then again, Katlin thought, I can't always be in the middle of things. Like most of the dramatic events that happened on the Enterprise, this barely concerned her. They'd send down a rescue team – security and medical – and they certainly wouldn't need her.

"Captain Picard to Lieutenant Pierce."

Katlin sat upright, a jack-in-the-box liberated. She couldn't keep the grin from her face as she tapped her comlink. "Lieutenant Pierce. Please proceed."

"Your presence is requested in conference room six."

Katlin punched the air with a silent "yes!" In the most professional tone she could muster, she responded. "On my way, Captain."

She knew Riker wouldn't be able to resist. Riker and Pierce, off on an away mission, like always. And so she was caught by surprise when she entered the conference room and found Riker with a storm across his face, refusing to meet her eyes.

Picard, Data, Troi, Worf and three graying and very angry Klingons – angry even for Klingons – were seated at the conference table. Their armor clanged and groaned as they shifted unevenly in their seats. Their lips curled and uncurled around dirty, daggerous teeth.

"This is the girl?" The nearest Klingon snarled. His hair was black and tangled, ratty.

"I am Lieutenant Pierce." Katlin said, evenly. Her weapons training sessions with Worf had taught her how to keep calm in front of a snarling Klingon. Although Worf's snarls were never touched with disgust, as this Klingon's were.

Picard spoke. "Lieutenant Pierce, your presence has been requested on the rescue mission. We anticipate a four day journey into the crevasse and back."

"I accept."

"Very good. You will embark tomorrow at 0500 hours."

Katlin felt something uneasy nibbling at the back of her mind. "Sir? May I ask why the rescue is not immediate?"

She felt an uncomfortable silence crackle around the conference table. Somehow, she'd hit a nerve.

Picard's voice was calm when he answered. "We are operating under the leadership of Commander Zorack," he said simply.

From the tension in the air, Katlin knew better than to press the matter. "Very good Captain, Commander." Katlin nodded respectfully to the Klingon Commander.

"I'll send a further briefing to your quarters. Dismissed." Picard nodded, and those seated at the table rose to leave, with Riker being the first out the door. Katlin hustled to keep up.

"Commander?" she asked, skipping a bit to keep pace.

"Riker to Worf. Meet me in the captain's ready room."

Was Riker ignoring her? "Commander?"

"Not now, Pierce."

"Very good, sir." She stopped her brisk walk and let Riker outpace her. A younger Katlin might have demanded to know what was going on, or taken offense, but Katlin was slowly learning that the best offense was sometimes a patient silence. Besides, Riker hated being taken at his word. Not now Pierce? Fine. She had better things to do. Like read her briefing.

She turned and walked back towards her cabin. The Klingon delegation was coming towards her in the hallway, and she nodded respectfully. The Klingons didn't honor her with even a glance, and the last of the delegation went so far as to bump into her shoulders.

Katlin stumbled, and then felt the Klingon press something into her palm.

Katlin kept her face purposefully blank as she curled her fingers around whatever it was the Klingon had passed her. She'd been on enough covert missions to realize when she was being palmed something secret. She kept her pace even as she walked towards her cabin.

The doors to her quarters hissed shut behind her, and Katlin uncurled her fingers. It was a data stick, standard issue. She cracked the case to check for anything hidden, but the interior looked unaltered. She went to her desk and plugged it into the nearest port. "Computer, scan for viruses."

"No viruses or malware found. Key contains one video file."

"Play file." Katlin turned her attention to her viewscreen.

Instant chaos. The screen displayed the tumultuous, screaming inside of a starship bridge in the midst of a crash. Two human crew were at the helms, sobbing and fighting with the controls. The Klingon captain was screaming largely unheeded orders, alternately in English and in Klingon. Beside the captain, a young, blonde first mate was collapsed in her chair, her neck at an impossible angle, dead. The view of bridge shuddered, and everyone stumbled, the dead first mate slid from her chair. Katlin's breath caught in her throat. Were these the last moments of the crew?

The screen begin to fill with the electric snow of a lost signal. As the images on the screen faded, Katlin could hear the Klingon captain screaming "The angel! Kill it! The angel! nuQanjaj!"

A final bright flash of white light whipped across Katlin's face. The screen went black, but Katlin could still hear their screams as they fell to their deaths.

Katlin took several steadying breaths, then reached her shaking fingers to her comlink. "Pierce to Riker?"


End file.
